


Ang mamatay nang dahil sa 'yo

by IlliterateReader



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: A Discussion on War and Death, Gen, Plotless, discussions of Genocide, discussions of propaganda, that's the whole fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:34:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25311667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IlliterateReader/pseuds/IlliterateReader
Summary: "To die because of you [the country]".To die. So many have died over the course of the war.Except Ozai. Except Zhao.Essentially a writing exercise talking about death throughout the series.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 26





	Ang mamatay nang dahil sa 'yo

**Author's Note:**

> OCs are hard. So you get me dropping this short little thing instead of working on either of my fics. I'm kinda sorry, but also I'm not.
> 
> I don't write angst. I write discussions on genocide. Every single thing I do has trigger warnings for discussions on genocide and colonization. I can't help it. You have been warned.

To die.

——

Did you know?  
The Air Nomads had an army. Fire Lord Sozin said so.

Did you know?  
The Water Savages may pillage our shores.

Did you know?  
Ba Sing Se has been taken. Firelord Ozai will carry us all to victory. 

Unsaid: He must. Maybe after that, he might then give a single damn about our town.

Unsaid: He must. Half of our family has already given their lives for Agni, it mustn’t be in vain.

——

Did you know?  
The wind tried to warn you. And now it howls at your shores, beating with the ocean in long, mad lashes. This is the price you paid.

——

Ozai. The ashes whisper, blown by the wind. You’ve failed us.

——

One thousand lashes for the empire. 

Ten for every year. 

One for every thousand corpses slaughtered on the dirt. 

One for every man down in the depths.

One for every five children marched from school, graduated from life in the front.

This is the price the wind exacts. In tornadoes, and hurricanes, and sudden falls. In money blown away and fanned flames. In the whispers, screaming, rasping, howling, for blood.

And they never believe, do they?

——

The Dragon Throne has had a long and bloody history.  
Unsaid: Ozai killed his father, the ultimate treason. And he had no right.

All hail the Throne.

——

To die.

There was no better damnation.

Said the little soldier boys, marched off to war.

Said Lee, and Sensu, and Gansu before him.

Said Azula and Lu Ten and Iroh, once.

Said Hakoda, then Sokka, then Katara in turn.

——

Said Zhao. Who dared. He dared.

(Zuko, he isn’t dead. No matter what you think.)

He dared. He spit in the face of the spirits. (He shouldn’t have expected death.)

And the price. (Imagine: his hatred or his life. This was what leaked throughout the Fire Nation. There was no choice, in the end. There was none. The Fire Nation had damned itself, snuffed out all the air.)

——

To die.

He was a child.

A mere child, meant to decide who lives and dies on a whim.

It wasn’t fair, said the Earth Kingdom generals. The Tyrant should’ve died. There is no justice.

What they’ve forgotten: the spirits were never fair.  
What they’ve forgotten: the child wasn’t their sacrifice to give.

It wasn’t fair, the families of those aboard the airships and those who fought on the fields and those who boarded the fleet didn’t say.

What they knew: those brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, were always meant to be a glorious sacrifice. Burning on the pyre for the nation.

——

To die.

Said Jet.

They all had to, didn’t you see? The war has touched everyone in this damned rotten world.

Said the Dai Li right back, for if he wanted to stay with the war so bad, he could die with it in Ba Sing Se.

——

To die.

Said Yon Rha.

And Kya made him swallow those words with the last laugh.

It was only fair. One swallow for another. A terrible, piercing scream gave way to horrible hacking as the blood went down, down, and up her throat. 

——

We’ve marched all the way to Ba Sing Se and claimed it for our own. We’ve taken over half of our enemies. Why should we stop? Fire’s nature is to grow, consume, take. The world is ours, why should we stop?

_Why should we stop?_ Firelord Zuko incredulously repeats.

To the generals, the admirals, the Ministers.

_Why should we stop,_ he roars in a fury. _Because you’ve marched all the way to Ba Sing Se. Because you’ve taken enough. Because the country and the people don’t deserve to die. Because it’s time for peace. Because _children_ shouldn’t be in wars._

Unsaid: Firelord Zuko was the latest in a line of boy kings.

Did you know?  
The Air Nomads are dead. They were pacifists.

Did you know?  
The Firelord’s friends are from the Water Tribe. The fleet lives.

Did you know?  
General Iroh fought for Ba Sing Se.

Did you know?  
Then-Prince Zuko fought for the 41st, against senseless slaughter.

——

To die.

That was the final line of two warring Nations’ anthems.

Not that the Earth Kingdom’s was standard. The knowledge has been faded and lost outside Ba Sing Se.

They were never truly just _one_ kingdom.

But they were fractured further with the war. With half taken, beaten, chained. Dressed in red and twirled around in unwitting rebellion.

To die.

King Kuei wanted to move on, to push his subjects to have the goal to live for their country instead of dying, but he didn’t understand.

So many have died, have fought, have paid the final price. Have clashed rocks against deadly steel and flame. That was the reality. There was no moving on. Not when the wound was gaping and open and _oozing_.

Not when the bureaucracy involved would mean Ba Sing Se would fracture once again if he focused on something petty as a cosmetic change.

To die.

Firelord Zuko was sick of the cult of personality around the Throne. If he could, he would’ve clawed, torn it all down, melted it into the useless slag it was.

But he couldn’t. Bastardizing tradition, they’d say. A scandal this early in his reign, they’d say. And then they’d never listen to anything he said ever again.

There was always better work to do. People needed food and work, first.

First.

To die. (For the country.)

It was a promise, he told himself. He would be the last to do so if he could help it.

——

To die.

Aang has seen the world, now. He could have.

He could have killed Ozai.

He really could have.

He could have given the spirits, the departed, the dead souls all lost, their pound of flesh.

But he couldn’t condemn his people to die with the Tyrant. He couldn’t tie their legacy to _him_. That wasn’t fair.

It wasn’t fair.

He wasn't supposed to be worried about dying.

It wasn’t fair. 

So he said no to his lot. 

He said no, and the wind obeyed.

He said no, and the spirits guided him.

He said no, and he was a child.

And maybe, now, he thought. Maybe people won’t have to die for war anymore.

——

To an era of peace and love.

**Author's Note:**

> The fic title's the final line of the Philippine national anthem. Translation's in the summary.
> 
> Additional context: Kuei's feeling that the line was too macabre/morbid, and the dismissal of his wishes to change that is inspired by the fact that Senate President Vicente Sotto III ("Tito" Sotto) literally tried to bother when my country already has a high incidence of poverty, malnutrition, undereducation, etc. It just feels pedantic.
> 
> This thing ended up talking about the Fire Nation because it just? Sounds concerning if you get rid of the lines before it. Alone, the line definitely sounds like something that would close out a Fire Nation anthem. (Full context: the line before this translates to - our joy when there are suffering (people)  
> So the full thing is: It is our joy when there are suffering to die for the country.) With context, it isn't Fire Nation-y, but it turned into a full on discussion on death in the series and 'to die' fits enough. So.
> 
> This was just... me fucking around with unstructured nonsense, let's be honest here. Anyway, yeah. This exists now.
> 
> Also I love Aang's pacifism. It's an amazing show of strength that he just said no to peer pressure and listened to himself. And kept the legacy of the Air Nomads alive.
> 
> Here's my [Tumblr](https://whats-a-reading.tumblr.com/) if you want.


End file.
